By John David Farrell, Guest Columnist

PICAYUNE, Miss. July 4, 2010 — America was born 234 years ago today. We are a relatively young Republic. Rome lasted over a thousand years.

What is unique, new about America, though?

You only have to read the “Declaration of Independence,” adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, to find out. It plainly tells us in simple words.

Prior to that “Declaration” men had considered acquiring  any type of freedom or legitimacy for instituting a governmental rule over men as deriving from a King, or from a group of men like a  Parliament, in case of the English, who had settled the Eastern Seaboard of the American continent.

But the new Americans who rose up in rebellion against the English nation looked in another place for that authority and freedom.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. . .”

What the Founding Fathers postulated had never been postulated by man before: That our rights don’t come from a King or other men, or a legislature of men; they come from God, the Creator. They are endowed, in other words, are a free gift from our Creator, and they are unalienable, that is, they can never be taken away from each one of us by anyone, or by any government, including our current government.

In other words, no one, no group of people can take away our rights! Our rights are ours, a gift of God to us for eternity. In fact, all that goverments are instituted for is to protect those God-giving rights.

In fact, if this government of ours right now does not secure these rights for us and maintain them, we have the additional right to rise up and change that government, or abolish it and start all over.

Dear Fellow Citizen, that is the difference; that is the reason we are different; that is our birthright that we must hold to no matter what happens, no matter how far our leaders stray from the original idea of self-government propounded by our Founding Fathers.

After this current damage is done, we will, as a free people, have to right ourselves and reassert our God-giving rights. It might be by replacing every single representative that we now have in Washington, and passing new Amendments to right our ship of state from the broadsides that have almost sunk her.

But if we hold to these founding truths, we will hold together and we will survive; it has always been the case, that when our Forefathers faced terrible odds, they held to our founding principles and those truths saw us through our crises.

Are we a Christian nation? We were founded on Christian principles, but America has always been big enough to embrace all faiths, and no faiths at all. But our nation is built upon a theological construct that postulates a Creator God who rules supreme in the universe. No God, no rights.

Yes, we are different, we Americans, and we will always be different and unique as we regain the control of our Republic.

We will take the first step on the journey of retaking our government in November.

Happy Birthday! America! You will have many more!

By John David Farrell, Guest Columnist

PICAYUNE, Miss. July 4, 2010 — We sometimes wonder if we are on the same planet and reading the same press as out illustrious politicians.

Former president Clinton excused the late Sen. Byrd from being a member of the KKK in his early career by saying he had to do it to get elected. If that would have been a conservative Byrd, they would have skewered him, like they did Lott and Thurmond.

Pelosi said, when they were passing the health care legislation, that the Congress had to hurry up and pass it so they could find out what’s in it. Chris Dodd recently said the same thing about the financial reform package.

Pelosi came up with a doosy this week by saying the best stimulent for the economy and best job creator is “unemployment checks.” Yep! That’s what she said.

Am I on Mars or Planet Earth? Please tell us.

Am I an idiot, or are they the idiots? Please tell us.

I am confused. Everything seems upside down.

The Bible said that ancient Israel became so evil, so corrupt  and so impotent, that “children ruled over them.”

Are we now at that stage? Please tell us!

By JOHN DAVID FARRELL

Guest Commentator

PICAYUNE, Miss., March 24 — How much longer will we the people stand by and let the “progressive left” destroy, or damage, our country? Our country is, no doubt, a center right country. So why is it that we can’t muster the power to stop the USA from becoming the USSR.

We have been lied to from the beginning of this administration; however, like I said, we are a center right country being lied to by the left. We need conservatives to get a spine and start a major digital and ground campaign. I know that conservatives have waged a good fight against this healthcare bill, but we must push on to the finish line. 

This is the fight of our lifetime; we will never get another chance. We are in a battle like that George Washington faced. If you remember correctly, Washington lost every battle except the one that counted.

So with some optimism, I say that this is just the beginning of the war. We may lose some battles, but there is no way that we can lose the war. We have things that the left does not have. We have things such as faith, numbers and all the reminders that the Democrats have given us to remember. Also we have the Churchill Factor: “We will never, never, never give up.”

I have to say that I don’t know if I agree with Republicans running on the repeal of healthcare. I think that it should be part of what we run on, but we must include property rights, liberty and the spirit of the American capitalistic way of life. We can’t let ourselves become complacent; we must keep the torch lit for our children. 

So from my humble key pad, I call you to arms, the arms of ideas. We must win on the battle field of ideas. I call you to educate, alert and stress to all your friends to stand up without fear of  being branded not politically correct and tell the truth, correct the lies and also call out the liers.

PICAYUNE, Miss. — I work in a small South Mississippi city, Picayune, with a population of about 25,000 persons. The city is located in the extreme southern end of Pearl River Co., which is the fourth largest county by square miles in Mississippi.

We are only about 50 minutes commuting  time from Canal Street in New Orleans, down I-59 and I-10.

I have lived here all my life. I am 64 years old today. The county has a population of about 50,000 to 60,000, I think.

I work for a newspaper, the “Picayune Item,” a small daily that publishes five days a week. I am a reporter.

As a reporter, I see a lot of, and report on,  public officials in the county and the city. I am aware of what they are dealing with and about how they are handling their jobs.

Now I was thinking the other day: In this one little county, which would be considered by national standards, a poor county when compared with others throughout the U.S., there are –

Three school boards, each school board consisting of five members and a superintendent of education. That right there is 18 public officials. I think the school board members get paid a stipend, maybe $100 a month, but each superintendent makes about $100,000 a year. I don’t dispute their salaries; they earn it.

There are two city boards in the county, Picayune’s, made up of five councilmen, a mayor and a city manager. The city manager does not vote; he manages the city, answering to the councilmen. Picayune operates under the city manager form of government, different from the traditional mayor-alderman form. Each councilman gets about $1,200 a month, the mayor $1,700 and the city manager about $60,000 a year.

On up the road is Poplarville, about 25 miles north of Picayune, which has a five-man board of aldermen and a mayor. I don’t know what they get paid, but I would imagine that it is a little bit less than Picayune.

Then there is the board of supervisors, made up of five supervisors, each elected from one of five beats or districts that cover the county. They each make about $44,000 a year, but that is not all. They each get a brand new truck and all expenses paid, including gas, for the use of that truck. There districts overlap the boundaries of the two cities. The traditional board of supervisors in Mississippi has a long and historic tradition. They go way back and they have the most powerful lobby in the state, the State Supervisors Association. In Louisiana it’s called a police jury.

The derivation of furnishing them transportation was once valid, but many believe they no longer need a truck. They used to take an active part in the maintenance and upkeep of their roads in their district, but now, all counties in Mississippi have been forced to go to the unit system. There road work is now handled by the road manager. They perform only an administrative roll. Nice benefit, though, huh?

And then on top of this we have a total of  five state legislators representing this one county. There’s state House representatives Mark Formby and Herb Frierson, and State Senators Sid Albritton and Ezell Lee, and another representative, I don’t know his name, whose district covers mainly Hancock County but it shoves up into a small portion of southeastern Pearl River Co. I think legislators make about as much as supervisors about $44,000 a year, maybe a little more, maybe a little less. I don’t know.

Now count it up, that’s approximately 36 public officials, mostly elected, to represent a county and run a county with about 60,000 persons. And oh yes, don’t forget the police protection: we have three police departments in this one little county, Picayune, Poplarville and the sheriff’s department. I don’t know how many they employ all together. That’s two police chiefs and one sheriff; the sheriff is elected. The two police chiefs in the two cities are appointed.

We also have what are called constables, and we have I believe two or three of them. They are elected.

That is about 40 officials who run the county, mostly elected, some paid a decent wage, others a pittance.

Now this is my take on this: We could combine the three school districts into one, we could eliminate the two cities, and let the supervisors run the whole county show, we couldfold the two city police departments into the sheriff department and let the sheriff administer the whole county law enforcement show; I mean we could really do some damage here on some budgets, some savings, by merging. Private enterprise does it all the time; why not government?

But no, government does a little cutting; rattles the pots and pans; and then comes back to taxpayers for another injection of cash in the form of higher taxes.

I have no doubt that if it were done right there would be a tremendous savings. However, I know this is a complicated matter and would have to be phased in by experts who know what they are doing, or we could have a disaster on our hands. I know that there are some government services that are direly needed and residents must have, but my suggestion is just that we should recognize what we have and see if there is a better way, and cheaper way, of doing things. Earlier generations did that, mostly because they were forced economically to do it.

And oh yes, the State Legislators. We could do away with the House and have what is called a unicameral system and have one Senator representing each of the state’s 82 counties. In other words, PRC would have one state legislator not five. That would cut the State Legislature from about 400 members to 82. Now that would be a great savings and we would eliminate a lot of dead representatives, oops!, I mean dead wood.

Now if the poor people of Mississippi and Pearl River County want to continue to pay for all these layers of government, then let them do it, and the ones on the public payroll will be glad to let us continue. But if we ever get serious about running our government efficiently and want to save taxpayer money, there is a way to save. But don’t look for it; I don’t believe it will ever happen, and if it ever does, it will be because the economy, after Obama gets through with us, will force us to do so.

Ask yourself, though, how much government do we really need. And just multiply what I have said by 82 times because that is how many counties Mississippi has. And by the way, why not look at consolidating some of the smaller counties?

So the ideal situation here would be one county school district, one board of supervisors, one police department and one legislator. Do you think that would work? I believe it could if we wanted it to.

I have visited New Hampshire. I understand they have done this. I believe they are the only state in the union that has a unicameral system.

What do you think?

If we, Pearl River County, successfully did it, one thing is for sure: We would be a great example to the rest of the U.S., and to Mississippi.

Pundits are saying that with the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts to replace the liberal icon, the late Teddy Kennedy,  that Obama’s health care legislation is dead. The legislation is currently locked up behind closed doors with Reid, Pelosi and Obama representatives, being rewritten with deals being cut to win over votes and reward supporters.

There has been the Louisiana purchase, the cornhusker kickback and now comes the latest sleazy deal last week, the tax exemption gift to the powerful unions that have supported Obama from the first.

Now here is what I understand happened. Correct me if I am wrong.

Say, for instance, if you have health insurance that costs over $8,000 a year, under the current health plan proposal, you will be taxed 40 percent on that plan. That’s a plan that you would pay between $600 and $700 a month to own. That is almost one-half. Now, you will pay that tax if you do not belong to  one of the big public unions, say for instance the AFL-CIO,  that comes under collective bargaining, or if you are a member of a government union. They will be exempt. That will save union members about $60 billion over the 15-year life of the exemption.

But you, the lowly nonunion member will pick up that tax for the exempt union members. That is Obama’s method of spreading the wealth around, transferring it from you, the nonunion member, to the union member, mainly his supporters. It is an award for their support and to guarantee their future support.

In other words, the unions were rewarded and the rest of us were put into the slave category, the serfs, the wage slaves, who will work our butts off to help pay for the tax exemptions. Oh yes, don’t forget, Congress and the Amish are exempt from the health care plan, too. How in the hell, did the Amish get an exemption? What lobbyist group represents them?

Oh yes, and don’t forget, if you are a young person, who does not want to purchase insurance, say you feel real spunky and healthy, don’t worry, you haven’t been left out. When you file your tax form, you will be asked to prove that you have health insurance. If you don’t, you will be hit with a healthy, rather I should say hefty,  Obama health care tax so you can ante-up your portion of the shared health care burden. Remember, under the audacity of hope doctrine, we should happily and helpfully help subsidize our fellow citizen who might not be as lucky or fortunate as you are. Never ever say, or point to the obvious fact, that you are probably better off than your fellow citizens, because you work your ass off and he doesn’t. If you do, then you will be labeled a radical right-wing, wing-nut  Tea Bagg patriot, an ungrateful person and above all not politically correct in your assessment of your governments efforts to help the less fortunate.

In addition, you elders will see Medicare cut in half. That means nothing else but rationining and rationing means you will not get some services.

Please tell me what people did before the government got invovled in health care?

I remember in the 1950s health care was affordable and a visit to the doctor or a week’s stay in a hospital was no big deal. When the government got into it in the 1960s prices began to rise and they are still rising.

Everything the government touches, turns to crap. Am I wrong?

Of course, the health care plan might be dead now, as some pundits say. Or Democrats might find some way to crank it back up. They are very clever, the mainstream media is not doing its watchdog job and most Americans are too busy trying to make ends meet in this economy to keep up with what is actually going on, which takes a little research.

Today’s date is Jan. 23, 2010. Now let me get this correct. President Barack Obama made a speech yesterday in Elyria, Ohio, a small community outside Cleveland. He said that one reason that Massachusetts voters elected Brown was because of a reaction against the eight years of the Bush policies. He said the same anger that swept him into office, swept Brown into Teddy Kennedy’s vacant seat.

Now just how dumb does this man think we are?

Or, has he gone over the edge and is now suffering from delusions, unable to face or reconcile the reality he sees with the socialist templete he has in his brain.  I wonder. What are your views?

We sort of approach the following with mixed feelings. We began At-Large in April, our first post being on April 16, and, of course, it was about the city council and the then upcoming election. Little did we know, or the incumbents at that time, what a big change would occur with the then current council. By June all but one were replaced by voters who were mainly disgruntled over the management of city financial matters.

It remains to be seen how the new council will handle a whole platefull of problems it faces, mainly financial.

But back to the main topic.

We have taken a position as a reporter with the Picayune Item, and will begin our employment with that newspaper at 1 p.m. today. We have not made that decision lightly, and here is my reason for going back to work for the Item and holding At-Large in abeyance. Abeyance is a big word meaning temporary inactivity or suspension. There, you won’t have to look it up.

My main goal in starting this blog, or website, was to inform the citizens of Picayune about what was actually going on in city government, as best as I could. We had no ulterior motives or axes to grind. We have done that for four months, and we are placing At-Large in abeyance almost exactly to the day ending four months.

Why we have accepted the position with the Item falls under the term resources. I can reach more people working for the Item. The newspaper, along with the Poplarville Democrat, a sister publication, reaches the entire county. They have a great website that is complimentary to their newspaper publication. And they will pay me to do something I love to do, that is reporting the news and writing.

I have a long history with the Item. I began work there in the summer of 1968 under owner Charlie Nutter, a tough old nut, who was a former AP bureau chief and AP foreign correspondent. I later went to LSU and got a degree in journalism. Off and on I have worked for the Item when it was a weekly, a semi-weekly, and was managing editor of it when it went daily in, I believe, 1978. I also worked under Bill Posey, who was publisher of the Democrat, as associate editor and then editor.

So, for those who want to follow my reportage, you can do it in the Item and on their website, and the Item management says that at some future point, when I get back into the flow with them, I will be able to write a blog, which will be posted on their website.

Over 6,000 persons have come to this site since I began it on April 16. And what is amazing to me (and you don’t see this count on the front page of the website) people have clinked on my stories approximately 20,000 times. That means that when someone comes to the site, they move around on it.

I want to thank those who encouraged me to begin the site and who have made comments to me on how to improve it, and, of course, for the encouragement that those readers gave on a consistent basis. I want to also thank my son, Andy, who set the site up for me and has continually advised me and worked with me on developing it. I want to also thank my son, John David, who has helped me with reportage on the site and also made some constructive comments.

This has been my first experience with the internet as a journalist, and believe me, it has been an eye-opener. The world wide web has changed everything when it comes to dissemination of news and information, and there will be more big changes ahead. Those who are willing and capable of making the changes and adapting will survive; those who don’t adapt will die. That’s the way a free capitalist system works. I wish our political leaders in Washington, D.C., realized this more, and would back off a little on micro-managing the economy.

So, Adios! Amigo! I will see you at the Item.

– 30 –

Have you noticed something: the absence of the nightly TV body count on the mainstream media (MSM) news outlets. Last month 40 American soldiers died in combat in Afghanistan, the highest in any one month since 9/11, but you would never know it by watching the MSM’s nightly news. It’s Obama’s war now, and things have strangely changed, especially in MSM news rooms.

If we had a conservative Republican president the nightly procession of pictures and names of dead American soldiers would inhabit your flickering TV screens. Pictures of the flag-drapped coffins returning to Dover Air Force Base would blanket our TV screens nightly, along with interviews of the greiving families.

By watching the nightly MSM’s presentation of the news you would hardly know that there is a war going on in Afghanistan and that the fighting has escalated dramatically. Commanders in Afghanistan are preparing to request more troops. But to find out what is going on you have to go to the internet and dig.

It happened this way under Bush: The Democrats put out the “talking points” daily and the MSM ran with it. The talking points have now changed, since Obama’s election, and the MSN are lightly reporting the war news and developments.

You can hand it to the Democrats. Under the Bush administration, they kept the anti-war sentiment boiling on the nightly news. Senate Democratic leader Sen. Harry Reid proclaimed the “war is lost,” and Congressman Murtha charged our boys had murdered “in cold blood” innocent Iraqi civilians. The soldiers he lambasted were later exonerated. While jihadists whacked off the heads of our citizens, the MSM highlighted the few misdeeds of our soldiers as if the whole damn bunch were war criminals. And compared to the decapitations and burnings, our transgressions were mild.

One wonders, how can this be? How can the media be so biased, either for the left or the right. We were raised on a diet of Walter Cronkite, and got our news each night for 30 minutes from a man whom we trusted, in a calm and reasonable way, who presented the facts and very seldom, if ever, interjected his opinions into the news. It seems now that facts are twisted to suit the biases.

We believe that for a society so submerged in information, we might be the most misinformed society on the planet, and in history. There is so much misinformation floating around in the media, that one cannot even understand what is in the health care legislation, a proposal, if passed, that will change the complexion of our society forever. One feels that the powers that be want the waters muddied.

With all these great engines of information technology at hand, we use them only to swap lies, half-truths and outright hearsay. One would think that cavemen were probably better informed, using word-of-mouth and smoke signals. Honesty and truthfulness is what counts, anyway, no matter what the means of communication.

Welcome to the 21st Century!

We don’t want to be drawn into the health care debate, although we don’t mind giving our opinion on it, but what we want to point out here is the double-standard of the mainstream media (MSM) as it reports the protests going on now at the open forums now being held by members of Congress home on leave for the August recess.

Remember the civil rights movement, remember the protests against the Vietnam War, remember the Minutemen being pushed off the stage by left-wingers at Columbia, remember Ann Coulter being attacked by a left-winger as she prepared to give a speech at a university campus, remember the invasions of congressional offices by Code Pink — yes, remember it all.

When it’s left-wingers, it is just shown and no extra comment added.

When it’s those from the conservative right, this is what we have heard: “thugs,” Pelosi compared them to Nazis, “a mob,” “right-wing nutcases,” “birthers”; one commentator said they were wild-eyed, right-wing supporters of Sarah Palin; Boxer said they were right-wing operatives of the Republican Party, like they were hired to show up.

They look to us like average Americans, who are fed up with the attitude eminating out of Washington, D.C., that ignores what a large part of the American public wants.

What amazes me is the open bias in the MSM, which as the fourth estate, is supposed to be informing us about what is in the health care legislation, and who these people are. We are sure it wouldn’t be too difficult to interview some of them. Most of the coverage is on YouTube.

The American people elected Obama and this Congress and as far as we are concerned, we are getting what we paid for. If the American voter, as fickle as he is, decides he’s had enough of this experiment, it is his right to ”throw the bums out” next election.

PICAYUNE, Miss., Friday, Aug. 7 — The City Council will resume budget workshops on Tuesday, Aug. 11, at city council chambers at 815 N. Beech St. and will conclude its workshops on Thursday, Aug. 13, at 2 p.m. Then the city will begin matching revenues and expenses, and they will know then what they face for the 2009-10 fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1. The council has said that all figures right now are preliminary. Nothing is written in stone.

If revenues don’t match expenses, they will have two alternatives: cut spending or raise taxes, or seek additional revenues somewhere.

After a week’s layoff from the two-a-week workshops, the council will wrap up its workshops with the final two on Tuesday, Aug. 11,  at 4 p.m. and Thursday, Aug. 13, at 2 p.m., making a total of six workshops overall. The process started with the first workshop on July 21.

After finalizing the budget, which they have to do by law by Sept. 15, they will have to publish it in the local newspaper and set a public hearing to receive input from private citizens. That will open up the budget for discussion by citizens who agree or disagree with some of the items, which they will have a chance to peruse in the newspaper. Citizens are not allowed to participate in the workshops, but are allowed to attend and listen. The budget workshops are an open meeting, just like a council meeting.

After receiving citizen input the council will, if they want to, change a few items or leave it the same, and then adopt it. The new budget must be in place by the start of the new 2009-10 fiscal year on Oct. 1. The city’s fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 each year.

Granted the workshops are tedious, a lot of discussion about numbers, which can be boring, but it is this boring process that will determine a lot of peoples’ future and whether or not you will face rising fees and taxes. But citizen and media attendance at the workshops has been dismal. Only two citizens have appeared to set through the budget discussions so far through four workshops, which on average last about an hour and a half.

The only media covering the workshops is At-Large.

The unconcern of citizens here is systemic, going back years. And the recent change in the city council was precipitated not by a large, well-informed public, but by a few brave souls who began writing letters to the local newspaper and questioning the old council in its meetings and privately.

At-Large has covered the workshops because we believe that on this budget, the first for the new council, hinges the fate of whether our city will continue to run large budget deficits, or whether this new council, elected by a small number of voters, but voters who said they wanted change, has the courage and expertise, along with the city manager, to rein in what has been in the past uncontrolled and unmanaged expenditures that have seen deficits run into the millions, causing a huge tax increase recently by the old council.

The latest state audit of city finances showed that in the 2006-07 fiscal year, the city ran a deficit of from $500,000 to $850,000 in the general fund, although the utility dept., where the losses had run into the millions of dollars over a number of years, was in the black for the first time in years. However, one has to wonder if the reason for the deficit in the general fund was because of transfers to balance the utility dept. financial statements.

At-Large talked to a source close to the audit process and was told that the red ink in the general fund amounted to around $500,000. However, the Picayune Item did an independent analysis of the budget and put the red ink at about $850,000. We believe that to be accurate. We talked to a private accountant, familiar with state audits, who told At-Large that he felt the overrun in 2006-07 was around $850,000 in the general fund, as the Item reported.

Budget audits are notoriously esoteric and few laymen can decipher them alone. It takes professional help in some areas, although some of the recommendations are obvious to anyone who can read. For instance, in the latest audit, ‘06-’07, the auditor said he had to reconstruct some essential reports in order to complete the auditing process. Interpretation: there weren’t any reports. Whoever was supposed to prepare them didn’t. In short, under the old council for a long time there was no budgetary and financial discipline. So it was inevitable that they got in trouble. It’s just like your family budget; you don’t count pennies, and soon espenditures will overrun revenues.

Why we rehash this is because we believe the new council knows what they are up against and what they have to do. They have to get control of the budget and the spending process to rein in expenditures. When the money is flowing everyone is happy; but let the money get tight and paranoia can set in.

And we feel, too, that Katrina had a large impact on the city, pushing up expenditures and prompting huge grants to the city and pumping up sales tax collections, that placed the city in a position of being flushed with cash. But when the revenues went down, evidently spending did not. Also, financial mismanagement in the utility fund prompted huge losses there.

From sitting in on the workshops and talking off-the-record and on-the-record to city officials and councilmen, here are some points At-Large has picked up on:

– The police and fire depts. make up 57 percent of the city’s approximately $9.5 million current budget. There are problems with overtime in the police dept. and delinquent fines in the city’s court system have run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, some say even over a million dollars. However, implementation of a vigorous collection effort of delinquent fines is showing success because of the hard work of Lisa Albritton, city court clerk. Also, the court is upgrading its data collection system and computers that will help the court keep better track of fines. The police dept. budget ran about $3 million this year and the fire dept. budget about $2.2 million. The problem the council and city manager face is if you cut too much in those depts. you face some consequences. The fire dept. budget has a direct impact on fire insurance ratings, and the police dept. rating, one of the best in the state and country for a city the size of Picayune, is directly impacted by its budget. Quite frankly, we would not want to be having to make these decisions (it’s above our pay rank), but that is what the council faces: tough, hard financial decisions.

– Just how close things are was illustrated by a budget crisis that hit in December of last year. The city then actually did not have enough money to make payroll. Thanks to Tax Assessor Gary Beech, a portion of the city’s ad valorem tax settlements was settled with the city early, or advanced, and the city made payroll. Officials we have talked to said there was nothing illegal about it, but it did illustrate and put into stark relief on what a thin edge the city has been operating on. The fall and winter are the crunch time.

– There is a bright spot in all of this. Last October City Manager Harvey Miller hired City Clerk Priscilla C. Daniel. She came out of retirement to take the job. She was happily retired, having retired from the City of Petal in 2001 as city clerk, leaving a set of impeccable books. Since October she has kept meticulous records on city expenditures, and as far as At-Large can find out the city is keeping tabs on outflow and income. For the first time in years, the city knows where it stands, although it might not have much money. That doesn’t mean that the city still doesn’t face problems when revenues dip. One-half the budget is funded through a state sales tax rebate, and that figure ebbs and surges with the volume of retail purchases here. We know for a fact that Daniel has already saved the city hundreds of thousands of dollars by the management of accounts. She pointed out just recently in a city council meeting, the last one for the old council on July 30, an overrun in the cost of the citywide paving project, saving taxpayers $126,000. She recently instituted a “lock box” system with Hancock Bank for collection and recording utility bills that will save the city thousands of dollars. If the paving contract had been approved as presented, the new council would right now be struggling with where to get the money to pay for it. She gives the council a monthly report at the council meeting on just where the city stands financially. All city financial data flow through her; she is not only the city clerk but the city auditor. At-Large has talked to high-placed state officials in the state auditor’s office, and they consider her one of the best in the state at what she does. To realize the significance of this you have to realize that over the past eight years, Picayune went through 7 or 8 city clerks, one remaining on the job only 4 hours.

– Collection of delinquent debts and sales taxes might be the key to making it without any cirisis hitting. If the city can pull in delinquent fines, which they are successfully doing right now, and collect some of the $80,000 delinquent on property cleanup charges, that will go a long way into providing a cushion, albeit, a small one for the budget. In addition, if the economy picks up and sales tax collections tick upward a little, that will help, too.

– The city recreational and parks dept. is in dire straights. There is barely enough money to maintain the huge Friendship Park, much less the six satellite parks in city communities. In addition, the city needs to construct restroom and concession stands for the new $3.5 million addition to the park, making it one of the largest ball field parks in the state. Additional restrooms and concession stands were not included in the recent new construction. That will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to remedy.

These are just a few of the impressions At-Large has picked up. We are sure there are more that we know nothing about.

We have written this extended commentary on what we have been covering at the council, so you, the citizen, will have a place to become better informed. We want to point out, too, that we have labelled it commentary, which means in journalism, that this is our impressions about what is going on, not the clear, hard facts, although we do believe it to be accurate. For instance a news story is supposed to be as factual as you can make it, with no added biases or opinions added. However, we could be wrong in some impressions. For instance, if you took the time to go the council meetings and workshops, you might come out with different, or slightly different, impressions.

The pressure on the council is to spend, spend, spend, just like in the federal arena right now. But a responsible government, especially on the local level, faces hard decisions, because they can’t run a deficit like the federal government does, and survive. We also believe that at some point, the federal government will hit the wall, too.

If you support the council, or even if you disagree with them, there are several ways you, as a private citizen, can help in the process. The council has a portion of its meetings set aside for citizens’ comments. You can speak there. You can comment here at the end of this story, or you can write a letter to the editor of the Picayune Item and voice your opinion.

Don’t be afraid to speak out as a private citizen; your voice is just as important as any other voice. But be polite and factual, and remember if you make any charges against anyone, you have to have the facts to back it up, because there will be a rebuttal. That’s the way our system works. It’s chaotic and boisterous sometimes, and a little rough, but it was meant to be that way to get at the truth. We are amazed at the tangent that some will get off on, personalities, that has nothing to do with the issue at hand.

Look at us, for example. We are just a lowly citizen, just like you, who wanted to know what was going on in city government, and we started asking questions and attending the session, and then all of a sudden, since we have a background in journalism, we thought about a small blog to write to give our impressions and help our fellow citizens know more about what is going on, and now thousands have come to this spot to read our impressions and stories. That is what is so great about America. The stage is open to every one if you have something to say and can back it up with common sense reason and facts.

We at At-Large stand solidly behind the council and recognize what a tough, hard job they will have ahead. But they must get the budget under control, and we will support them in that. We might not always agree with everything they do, but as regards to the city finances there can be only one response: our city must live within the revenues it receives just like all of the families that live in Picayune do. We believe this council understands that.